Dad brandished knife at bailiffs

A dad who brandished a two-foot hunting knife at bailiffs who were trying to repossess his car has been jailed.

Nathan Watson, 27, had already put his children in the back of the Volkswagen Golf in a bit to stop the debt collectors towing the vehicle away.

But when the bailiffs told Watson they would drag the children out, Watson, lost his temper and started waving the knife around, shouting: “I’m going to stab you.”

Watson, of no fixed address, has been jailed for five years for the affray at his partner’s house in Blackpool Road along with a burglary in which he broke into a garage and stole a Honda motorbike and a robbery in which a motorcyclist was pushed from his bike and the Yamaha RX was stolen. Cecilia Pritchard, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court that on January 3 Watson was a pillion passenger riding alongside the Yamaha RX on a dirt track at Bluebell Way, Preston, when one of the two riders kicked the Yamaha, causing the rider to fall off.

Tom Lord, defending, told the court the rider suffered cuts and grazes to his face as he fell.

But as the motorcyclist got to his feet, Watson shouted: “Give me the bike” took the Yamaha and rode away.

Judge Michael Byrne, sentencing, said: “Conduct of this sort in public will not be tolerated. People are entitled to go to dirt tracks and use their motorbikes without feeling threatened.”

He described the affray as a “nasty offence in which a weapon was used” and said the burglary was pre-planned.

Judge Byrne sentenced Watson to two years for the robbery, 14 months for the affray, 20 months for the burglary and a further two months for a bail act offence. He also activated 18 weeks of a suspended sentence imposed for a domestic violence offence against his former partner.